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The number of Afghan refugees trickling home from Iran and Pakistan plummeted this year, with the United Nations refugee agency pinning the blame for the low number of returns on insecurity, limited economic opportunities and political insecurity in the wake of August’s national polls.

The United Nations independent expert on Palestinian rights has again called for a threat of economic sanctions against Israel to force it to lift its blockade of Gaza, which is preventing the return to a normal life for 1.5 million residents after the devastating Israeli offensive a year ago.

The moderate impact of the H1N1 pandemic is the “best possible health news of the decade,” but the head of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today warned that more people – particularly in the southern hemisphere – could become sick this season and that it would be premature to say the health risk is over.

Five years after the massive Indian Ocean tsunami, which left a devastating trail of death and destruction, millions of people have benefited from the influx of aid by rebuilding stronger infrastructure, social services and disaster warning systems than existed before the catastrophe, according to the United Nations agencies at the core of the recovery effort.

The joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in the war-torn Darfur region and the Sudanese Government have taken the first steps to bolstering the safety of peacekeepers due to a surge in attacks against blue helmets in recent months.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today expressed its deep distress over the killing of one of its staff members in a suicide bomb attack in the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

The head of the United Nations refugee agency has expressed dismay as Thai authorities began the forced deportation today of thousands of ethnic Hmong back to neighbouring Laos.

United Nations peacekeepers have been playing the role of Santa Claus in Haiti during this holiday season, bringing gifts, warm meals and a little cheer to the least privileged children in orphanages and schools in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Science students from Russia and Ukraine have been taking part in a United Nations-backed practical training programme to enhance the protection of people and the environment against radiation exposure from nuclear power plants while responding to safety and security-related needs.

A $6,000-per-month United Nations investment in a pioneering health care scheme is paying significant dividends for nearly 1,500 refugees living in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who fled neighbouring countries.